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Clique
Ross Cleary was the playboy ad man who could sell anybody anything, even themselves. He was a young, high energy, creative genius at the top of his game, working for a company who could give people the perfect image … for a price. The Aura was the ultimate fantasy, a holographic mask that could give anyone any image or appearance they desired. It was the hottest high-tech fashion accessory on the planet, an account executive’s dream, something everybody wanted, the electronic device that everybody had to have, and Ross Cleary was the in-house driving force behind it … until one night, a chance encounter shattered his complacency and showed him a new way. And when the man who sold everyone illusions lost his own, he finally found the answer … a new way for people to become everything they’ve ever wanted, a way that he could show them, through the movement known as … Clique.
- GenresScience Fiction
232 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1982
1 person is currently reading
9 people want to read
About the author
Simon Hawke
90 books238 followersAlso published as J.D. Masters.
He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D. Masters" and mystery novels.
He was born Nicholas Valentin Yermakov, but began writing as Simon Hawke in 1984 and later changed his legal name to Hawke. He has also written near future adventure novels under the penname "J. D. Masters" and mystery novels.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 23, 2022
Ross Cleary is the top advertising bod at Holgraphics Inc. - makers of the Aura - wearable holograms that sheath your real features so that you can look like anybody else. Historical figures are popular and Cleary himself often dons Beethoven’s dour visage. When Ross is offered the job as second top dog he balks at the being made to socialize with people he has nothing in common with and is accused of not ‘playing the game’. This gives Cleary a road to Damascus moment - satori or nirvana - and he quits his job (but not before getting a huge stake in HoloInc) and starts denouncing Auras. Renouncing his former sybaritic lifestyle and accompanied by his new girlfriend (an ex-hooker - the Biblical imagery is stark) he forms the Cleary Idiomorphic Quantum Evolution, or CLIQUE. The organization is for getting rid of false visages and ‘going clear’ is the catchphrase. While the first half of the book is interesting it quickly becomes a philosophical tract worthy of Scientology. If you like sophistry and picking gnatshit out of pepper you’ll get some enjoyment from this book from Nicholas Yermakov (which is a pseudonym for Simon Hawke). Ending subverts expectations.
January 9, 2016
My fourth book by Hawke originally published under the Nicholas V. Yermakov name.
This is one of those books that kind of threw me for a loop and I'm still not 100% certain how I'm 'supposed' to take it. If the main character is supposed to be a 'hero', then, yeah, I'd probably give this close to 1 or less stars. If, as I suspect, it's something like a look into the creation of a cult like organization, then this would be closer to 4 stars. So, as it stands, I rate this 3.5. Or, here, 3. Then put on a 3.5 shelf.
So then - initially I didn't realize this was a book published in 1980-something. There's indicators that the book was written in the '80s, but that might have just been 'atmosphere'. I mean, the author did live through the 1980s. As an adult. Could have a future where people are smoking a lot. Not, immediately, an indication that this was a near future book written during a period of time people were still choking away on cigarettes. Heavy mention of land-lines didn't mean cell-phones didn't exist - the phones mentioned were part of a information/phone service. The kind of thing, even today, run through land-lines. So, yeah . . ..
Okay then - the book involves as a main character an advertising executive for a company that sells 'auras' - electronic devices that people wear, 'sheath themselves within', so that they can display rain clouds, classical musicians, etc. in place of their own appearance (or, their own appearance 'bettered'). Somewhere along the way, the main character, presented up to this point as a whiny, bratty, man-child, finds himself in his office laughing manically. He'd been 'disillusioned'. And has found 'the truth'. And plans to be 'clean' now.
Basically he is the kind of guy whose 'truth' involves: (1) anything except complete openness is a lie (so, yeah, he'd probably be all for Facebook saying - only 'real names' allowed; and probably for the times when Facebook 'accidentally' breaks some privacy shield/setting); (2) anything that isn't 'his truth' is wrong; (3) compromise is evil; (4) fucking around behind your girlfriend's back is a-okay if you are a new age-y self-help guru who charges people to come hear him talk; (5) his 'truth' is really important, dude, but . . . he can't explain it, man, you can only 'experience it' - the guy had mentioned this while on a talk show, spouting bull-shit and giving run around non-answers, and gives an example of trying to explain to someone what it's like to be caught out in the rain to someone who had never experienced that. Then proceeds to give a perfect explanation of what that is like. But refuses to dish up whatever the fuck his philosophy might actually be. Because . . . reasons.
He trains people to purposefully antagonize people, to make them defensive. If his message is so great, maybe, you know, actually tell people what it might be? Instead of being all super aggressive and putting people on defensive?
So, yeah, if this book is supposed to be about showing this guy as a hero, or his 'ideas' as anything more than bull-shit, then yeah - I'd give this something like 1 or 1/2 stars.
By the way, I noticed one little thing when I finished, then turned back to the cover again to exit the book. This is one of those occasions wherein Hawke's decision to go with very plain covers that show just the title and author name actually works brilliantly with this specific book. It looked like - the book is 'clean' and has been 'disillusioned'. (by the way, the guy whose name I probably should have included in here at some point, sees 'disillusioned' as a good thing. He likes taking words and misapplying them. Here he has broken through the illusions that are caused by people making the choice to wear aura's. So he is 'disillusioned' now.)
Oh, and that rather graphic sex scene was unexpected and off-putting. Came out of left field. Just . . . graphic sex.
This is one of those books that kind of threw me for a loop and I'm still not 100% certain how I'm 'supposed' to take it. If the main character is supposed to be a 'hero', then, yeah, I'd probably give this close to 1 or less stars. If, as I suspect, it's something like a look into the creation of a cult like organization, then this would be closer to 4 stars. So, as it stands, I rate this 3.5. Or, here, 3. Then put on a 3.5 shelf.
So then - initially I didn't realize this was a book published in 1980-something. There's indicators that the book was written in the '80s, but that might have just been 'atmosphere'. I mean, the author did live through the 1980s. As an adult. Could have a future where people are smoking a lot. Not, immediately, an indication that this was a near future book written during a period of time people were still choking away on cigarettes. Heavy mention of land-lines didn't mean cell-phones didn't exist - the phones mentioned were part of a information/phone service. The kind of thing, even today, run through land-lines. So, yeah . . ..
Okay then - the book involves as a main character an advertising executive for a company that sells 'auras' - electronic devices that people wear, 'sheath themselves within', so that they can display rain clouds, classical musicians, etc. in place of their own appearance (or, their own appearance 'bettered'). Somewhere along the way, the main character, presented up to this point as a whiny, bratty, man-child, finds himself in his office laughing manically. He'd been 'disillusioned'. And has found 'the truth'. And plans to be 'clean' now.
Basically he is the kind of guy whose 'truth' involves: (1) anything except complete openness is a lie (so, yeah, he'd probably be all for Facebook saying - only 'real names' allowed; and probably for the times when Facebook 'accidentally' breaks some privacy shield/setting); (2) anything that isn't 'his truth' is wrong; (3) compromise is evil; (4) fucking around behind your girlfriend's back is a-okay if you are a new age-y self-help guru who charges people to come hear him talk; (5) his 'truth' is really important, dude, but . . . he can't explain it, man, you can only 'experience it' - the guy had mentioned this while on a talk show, spouting bull-shit and giving run around non-answers, and gives an example of trying to explain to someone what it's like to be caught out in the rain to someone who had never experienced that. Then proceeds to give a perfect explanation of what that is like. But refuses to dish up whatever the fuck his philosophy might actually be. Because . . . reasons.
He trains people to purposefully antagonize people, to make them defensive. If his message is so great, maybe, you know, actually tell people what it might be? Instead of being all super aggressive and putting people on defensive?
So, yeah, if this book is supposed to be about showing this guy as a hero, or his 'ideas' as anything more than bull-shit, then yeah - I'd give this something like 1 or 1/2 stars.
By the way, I noticed one little thing when I finished, then turned back to the cover again to exit the book. This is one of those occasions wherein Hawke's decision to go with very plain covers that show just the title and author name actually works brilliantly with this specific book. It looked like - the book is 'clean' and has been 'disillusioned'. (by the way, the guy whose name I probably should have included in here at some point, sees 'disillusioned' as a good thing. He likes taking words and misapplying them. Here he has broken through the illusions that are caused by people making the choice to wear aura's. So he is 'disillusioned' now.)
Oh, and that rather graphic sex scene was unexpected and off-putting. Came out of left field. Just . . . graphic sex.
August 2, 2018
Bit of a weird ending, did I miss something? not perhaps one of Hawke's finest...
November 8, 2016
It's an interesting premise: an electronic pendant that conceals your looks in favor of a pre-programmed alter ego. You can change your appearance with your mood or the theme of any social event.
You know there eventually had to be a backlash. But from so high up in the company that essentially has the monopoly on the pendant?
You know there eventually had to be a backlash. But from so high up in the company that essentially has the monopoly on the pendant?
April 17, 2015
DECADES ahead of its time.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews